Caught On Camera: Teen Pushed Off Bridge Suffers 5 Broken Ribs

MOULTON FALLS, Wash. (CBS Local) – In a video gone viral, you can see 16-year-old Jordan Holgerson start to change her mind about jumping into water off the edge of a bridge. She’s about to back out.

“She said no in the video,” Jordan’s sister, Vanessa said to CBS affiliate KOIN-TV. “And then she pushed her.”

Jordan Holgerson shoved off the bridge (KOIN)

Instead of safely getting off the bridge, a family friend comes up from behind and apparently pushes an unsuspecting Jordan, sending her off the edge and 60 feet into the water below.

Jordan is recovering in the hospital with five broken ribs and a collapsed lung. She could be released in a couple of days, her family said.

Jordan Holgerson shoved off the bridge (KOIN)

Moulton Falls, despite the sign saying not to do it, is a popular place to jump. Jordan considered making the leap, but decided against it. Then, Vanessa said the friend pushed her sister.

“I think she tried to do it jokingly and didn’t think what could have happened,” Vanessa said. “You don’t really play around at 60 feet.”

Regardless, Jordan’s other sister, Kaytlin, said a true friend wouldn’t have done that. “Friends don’t push someone from that high,” she said, “so I was pissed.”

That’s why Kaytlin said she confronted the girl who pushed her sister on social media, looking for an apology.

“She pretty much said that she was sorry for doing it and she wouldn’t have done it if she knew the outcome of it and that she knows it was an absurd thing to do,” Kaytlin said.

However, an apology might not be enough, Kaytlin said.

“I think the girl that pushed her should have some sort of consequence because you won’t learn your lesson if you think you can could do that again and think it will be fine,” Kaytlin said.

The family hopes the video will be a lesson for people to stay away from the bridge altogether.

Jordan Holgerson met with the media from a large room at PeaceHealth Southwest on Thursday and said she is happy to be OK.

Jordan Holgerson (KOIN)

The teenager said she’s in a lot of pain without her medication to treat her injuries, including five broken ribs and air bubbles in her chest. As she was falling, she said she “wasn’t thinking about anything, just what to do. What am I supposed to do?”

Holgerson did say that while she was in the air she tried “to push myself straight so my feet would hit first. That didn’t work.”

When the teen hit the water, she said she “couldn’t breathe. So that’s all I was thinking about.”

Holgerson can’t play sports for a while and she can’t go on an airplane for three months, she told the assembled press, including members of the national media. But she’s supposed “to keep walking and make my lungs healthier.”

Holgerson has seen the video of her fall. “It’s just scary. I’m shocked.” But she added she’s not afraid to go back into the water.

“No, I’m still going to have fun.”

“I’m thankful for my helpers and all my other helpers,” the teen said. “A lot of people who I don’t know who are helpers on the Internet.”